by Mark Silva
"The Bush-Cheney administration not only broke the law, it shattered the public trust and undermined America's reputation around the world,'' Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy writes today.
Leahy, promoting a "truth commission'' inquiry of the interrrogation tacts of the past administration now banned by the Obama administration, suggests that the Bush Justice Department was being used to "immunize'' officials for illegal practices.
"After withdrawing the so-called Bybee "torture memo," the Bush-Cheney administration secretly reinstated the torture policy,'' Leahy writes in an Op-ed article in the Boston Globe. "While repeatedly claiming that the United States did not torture, the Bush-Cheney administration secretly authorized techniques that included waterboarding - up to 183 times in one case.
"This was not an "abstract legal theory," or "hypothetical," as Alberto Gonzales dismissively described in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee,'' the chairman, a Democrat from Vermont, writes. "These were specific techniques, authorized by high-ranking US government officials and used on real people. We have prosecuted people for these kinds of acts against Americans, and condemned other nations for sanctioning these methods.
"The techniques are wrong and their supposed legal rationale is just as bad. The idea that the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel would be used to contort our laws on subjects as serious as torture is appalling,'' he writes. "The Justice Department was apparently being used to immunize government officials to conduct torture by defining it down and building in legal loopholes.
Comments
O looks to AG Holder, who looks to the Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, Leahy, who obviously smells blood in the water (pardon the graphic pun). A Commission of Inquiry seems like a logical next step -- this is far from over. Sic 'em Pat.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | May 3, 2009 11:14 AM
Senator Leahy, how about lifting the "veil of secrecy" over the Obama administration?
Like, for example, who's getting the TARP bailout money. People have been forced to file lawsuits to get the government to give us these facts.
Posted by: Babe in the woods | May 3, 2009 11:21 AM
A "truth commision" give me a break!.
Leahy among other dems couldn't thell the truth to save their souls. They are so phony, and bias it makes me want to throw up. Bipartisanship I haven't seen one instance where the dems have reached out on any issue of sub stance.
Posted by: Paul | May 3, 2009 11:46 AM
"I haven't seen one instance where the dems have reached out on any issue of sub stance." sic
Posted by: Paul May 3, 2009 11:46 AM
Paul,
And what suggestions has the GOP made since O took office? Why reach across to the "Party of No?"
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | May 3, 2009 12:34 PM
I DON’T WANT TO BE IN THE POSITION OF HAVING TO TRUST "ANYONE" ANYMORE!
I'd like to see our DOJ return to blindly enforcing the law rather than selectively prosecuting political opponents as it did during the Bush administration. But how can we be CERTAIN that will be accomplished if the DOJ chooses NOT to prosecute those in the CIA who were "following orders"?
I wholeheartedly want ALL of the people who formulated, authorized and gave the orders to be held accountable, but doesn't NOT going after those who just "followed orders" eliminate their GREATEST INCENTIVE for giving up ALL of their bosses? Can't the smaller fish then SELECTIVELY CONTROL and or GREATLY INFLUENCE "WHICH" of the bigger fish DO and or DO NOT get prosecuted? If the little fish have no PERSONAL LEGAL STAKE in telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, aren't they vulnerable to internal and external political and career pressures that COULD INFLUENCE who they DID and or DID NOT incriminate? Does anyone believe that there is NO POLITICS within the CIA?
I strongly believe that if EVERYONE isn't prosecuted, we will have no way of knowing if EVERYONE who was GUILTY “WAS” in fact PROSECUTED.
I don't want to have to TRUST in the HONESTY of “ANYONE” ANYMORE! And NOT prosecuting EVERYONE, in my humble opinion, CREATES an environment that gives the BIGGER fish a better chance of WIGGLING THEIR WAY OFF THE HOOK.
Posted by: osage | May 3, 2009 12:34 PM
As a member of the
Select Committee on Intelligence,Patrick Leahy leaked a number of pieces of CLASSIFIED information, which led to HIS RESIGNATION from the committee.
Leaks included information about a Reagan plan to topple the Gaddhafi regime in Libya, and another regarding the Iran-Contra affair.
Leahy deemed the Iran-Contra LEAK “careless” and ACCEPTED blame. There is a possibility that a leak of his led to the death of an egyptian covert agent.
The guy is untrustworthy and now he wants a "truth" commission....make sure he investigates if Fancy Nancy Pelosi, the Joan Rivers of the Congress knew about the "torture".
Let's find out about that! Think he'd leak that info?
Posted by: Pat the Yak | May 3, 2009 1:33 PM
A "truth commision" give me a break!.
Leahy among other dems couldn't thell the truth to save their souls. They are so phony, and bias it makes me want to throw up. Bipartisanship I haven't seen one instance where the dems have reached out on any issue of sub stance.
Posted by: Paul | May 3, 2009 11:46 AM
========================
And they say right wingers don't know how to use spell checkers or write a literate sentence.
Posted by: Kenneth Janowski | May 3, 2009 3:50 PM
It seems Bush and Alberto Gonzales has some splane to do.
Posted by: Old School | May 4, 2009 8:28 AM